One of the best things about doing this job is the chance to get out of the country to see bands in places you may not otherwise ever visit. Having travelled in recent years to gigs in Spain, Sweden, America & Italy, when the chance arose to catch up with the Angra/Firewind/Power Quest roadshow in Bordeaux it was one that just couldn't be turned down. Despite having spent considerable time in France over the years I hadn't ever been to a gig in that country and was eager to see just how the crowd at the Theatre Barbey would take to three band line. Therefore via a flight from Luton we landed in a very wet and soggy Bordeaux to see how things panned out.

First off the biggest surprise of the trip. Rounding the corner to the venue there stood, in all it's glory, a bright red London bus with the destination Shoreditch displayed for all to see. A very 'Summer Holiday' moment and initially I thought that the Power Quest guys were taking their first opportunity to tour the European mainland in said vehicle. Actually it turned out to belong to the venue, but a surreal moment never-the-less. Anyway on with the show...

First on were the aforementioned Power Quest. Anyone who reads this website regularly will know that the Anglo-Italian's are held in high regard in HardRockHouse circles. Steve Atkinson gave their latest album ' Magic Never Dies' top marks in his review and live the band have never failed to impress. In all truthfulness it's very hard not to like the band's blend of power metal and, for want of a better term, AOR. As with set opener 'Find My Heaven' the majority of the bands songs are up-tempo, uplifting compositions that one can't help but enjoy.

For the first of three bands Power Quest were blessed with a crystal clear sound and a lighting rig that many clubs in the UK would love to possess all of which enhanced proceedings and the seven hundred or so people packed into the Barbey certainly seemed to be enjoying what Power Quest served up. Sacred Land, Edge of Time, Magic Never Dies and set closer Neverworld were all received raucously, and in all fairness probably better than the band have been greeted back in the UK. Mind you given that mainland Europe is the heartland of the power metal genre that isn't too surprising.

The one thing that is different about Power Quest this time around however is the fact that vocalist Alessio Garavello has taken over second guitar duties on stage. This certainly rounds out the band's live sound, bringing a heavier feel to the songs, however on the downside it makes the band rather static and limits the amount that Garavello can work both the stage and the audience. Being tied to a mike stand centre stage detracts from Garavello's frontman responsibilities and is probably asking too much from him. However in all fairness asking anyone to sing in a language other than their native tongue, to an audience from another country and play guitar on top of that would prove to be an onerous task.

Debates about the rights or wrongs of a frontman playing guitar aside Power Quest certainly did themselves no harm with this performance and, if the rest of the self financed tour proved equally as popular, then their standing and reputation in mainland Europe can only be enhanced and that, surely, was the object of the whole exercise...

The second band of the evening, Greece's Firewind, were certainly one this reviewer was looking forward to catching, their latest album , Allegiance, having been on almost constant rotation on the MP3 player since it was released last year. Did the band live up to such high expectations - with a doubt they not only lived up to expectations they exceeded them by the proverbial country mile. As with Power Quest the sound and lighting in the venue was spot on allowing the full power and clarity of Firewind's music to reverberate round the hall and from the off the band had the audience in the palms of their hands.

For forty five minute all those in Bordeaux were treated to one of the best performances I've had the pleasure to witness in a long time. Concentrating in the main on songs from 'Allegiance' Firewind were nothing if spectacular. From set opener 'Insanity' through the likes of 'In The Anger', 'Brother's Keeper', and most especially during the instrumental 'The Fire & The Fury' the twin guitars of Gus G and Bob Katsionis ground out riff after riff and scorching solo after scorching solo. That's not to say the rest of the band were slouches. The powerhouse drumming of Mark Cross drove the band along throughout and vocalist Apollo Papathanasio, without the burden of any instrument to encumber him, drew the audience into the show with ease. By the time their allotted set closed out with Falling To Pieces and Tyranny Firewind had kicked the proverbial ass and left headliners Angra with some act to follow.

There are some bands who happen to be absolutely fantastic live and yet somehow fail to translate this excellence into their recorded work and conversely others who produce fantastic album after fantastic album and yet when it comes to stage work somehow never live up to the promise and expectations one may have. if I start by saying that for well over a decade Angra have produced quality CD after quality CD then you may very well get the idea of which side of the fence I feel they site on after this performance - indeed Angra were, in the main, a big disappointment.

Lets try to justify that. Firstly, and unusually for a headline band, they had by far the worst sound of the night. Whether by design or cock up vocalist Edu Falaschi was in the main inaudible throughout and was simply overwhelmed by the musical soundscape woven around him. perhaps the band view the complex guitar lines are being of primary importance to which the vocals are simply secondary, but such an unbalanced mix does nothing for the overall feel of a gig. Add to this that Falaschi saw the need to disappear off stage during most instrumental passages and you came away with the feeling that the gig was not where the band really wanted to be. Despite it being obvious that Angra were treated as conquering heroes by the vast majority in attendance Angra seemed to be on auto pilot throughout rarely seeming to break sweat as they played though a set that included the likes of Unfinished Allegro, Carry On, Salvation Suicide, Wait In Silence and Wings of Reality.

In reality Angra's two hours on stage seemed like much longer and it wasn't until the encore that the band seemed to be having anything like fun. Delivering Deep Purple's classic Smoke On The Water and The Beatles' Come Together everyone started swapping instruments and looking like they were finally getting into the swing of things, but by then it was far too little far too late.

On this occasion it was game, set match to Firewind with Power Quest taking second place and Angra trailing home a somewhat distant, and disinterested third. Next time I'll stick to Angra on CD.

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